Natalie Maines became the voice, the face and the symbol of something that had little to do with the music she and her bandmates, the Dixie Chicks, were making about a dozen years ago.
She had the audacity, the temerity, the unmitigated gall to grab a microphone during a concert in London and declare that she was “ashamed” that President George W. Bush was from Texas. Maines, a native of Lubbock, thought little of the Iraq War, so she decided to protest it.
For that she and the other Chicks were scorned. Country radio stations all around the nation banned them. How dare they speak ill of the president and condemn his war policy?
She poses an interesting question today, though.
She wonders: How is it that Donald J. Trump — the Republican presidential nominee — can all but order a hit on Hillary Rodham Clinton and still be revered by those who condemned her for speaking her mind?
Trump has said as well that Barack Obama “founded” the Islamic State and has continued to question whether Obama is constitutionally eligible to serve as president of the United States.
Does that bother those on the right?
Not in the least … apparently.
Why is that?
Man, oh man. There’s so much about this current political climate that is very ugly.